1201.4—General definitions.
(a) Judge.
Any person authorized by the Board to hold a hearing or to decide a case without a hearing, including an attorney-examiner, an administrative judge, an administrative law judge, the Board, or any member of the Board.
(b) Pleading.
Written submission setting out claims, allegations, arguments, or evidence. Pleadings include briefs, motions, petitions, attachments, and responses.
(d) Appropriate regional or field office.
The regional or field office of the Board that has jurisdiction over the area where the appellant's duty station was located when the agency took the action. Appeals of Office of Personnel Management reconsideration decisions concerning retirement benefits, and appeals of adverse suitability determinations under 5 CFR part 731, must be filed with the regional or field office that has jurisdiction over the area where the appellant lives. Appendix II of these regulations lists the geographic areas over which each of the Board's regional and field offices has jurisdiction. Appeals, however, may be transferred from one regional or field office to another.
(e) Party.
A person, an agency, or an intervenor, who is participating in a Board proceeding. This term applies to the Office of Personnel Management and to the Office of Special Counsel when those organizations are participating in a Board proceeding.
(i) Service.
The process of furnishing a copy of any pleading to Board officials, other parties, or both, by mail, by facsimile, by commercial or personal delivery, or by electronic filing (e-filing) in accordance with § 1201.14.
(k) Certificate of service.
A document certifying that a party has served copies of pleadings on the other parties or, in the case of paper documents associated with electronic filings under paragraph (h) of § 1201.14, on the MSPB.
(l) Date of filing.
A document that is filed with a Board office by personal delivery is considered filed on the date on which the Board office receives it. The date of filing by facsimile is the date of the facsimile. The date of filing by mail is determined by the postmark date; if no legible postmark date appears on the mailing, the submission is presumed to have been mailed five days (excluding days on which the Board is closed for business) before its receipt. The date of filing by commercial delivery is the date the document was delivered to the commercial delivery service. The date of filing by e-filing is the date of electronic submission.
(m) Electronic filing (e-filing).
Filing and receiving documents in electronic form in proceedings within the Board's appellate or original jurisdiction in accordance with § 1201.14.
(n) E-filer.
A party or representative who has registered to engage in e-filing under paragraph (e) of § 1201.14.